Erin Shepard: Her Story Rewritten
by From Thessia To Ranoch
Summary: This story follows Erin Shepard through several events of her life, including her struggles, joys, and friendships. Shepard/Kaidan ex-relationship and Shepard/Liara. Many events in this work of fiction do not occur in the actual game. Bioware owns all.


Raindrops pelted and drummed on the roof of the Vancouver military base, and the wind whipped against the window. With every sound of the stormy ambiance, Erin Shepard was pulled further out of her slumber. When a clap of thunder finally erupted from the sky, the commander was startled awake.  
Erin bolted upright in her bed. She instinctively groped along the side of her bed in the darkness, trying to feel out where she left her gun. Every second that went by without that weapon in her hand added to her mounting anxiety, in addition to the fact that she didn't know where she was. Her pulse accelerated rapidly until she finally remembered her current situation.

_I am in an Alliance base in Vancouver, on Earth. I've been grounded and forced to stay here for the time being._

Thunder burst through the sky again, causing the commander to flinch. She threw her twisted blanket off of her body and swung her legs over the side of the bed. With her elbows propped up on her knees, she wearily rested her head in her hands and let the darkness embrace her.

Now and then, veins of vicious cobalt lightning whipped around dark storm clouds, briefly illuminating Shepard's cabin. There wasn't much in there; just her tiny cot, a short dresser, a metal desk facing the exposed window and a door in the far corner. Erin rose from her bed and made her way over to her desk, her bare feet clapping on the cold, hard floor.

Very few things were on her desk: two datapads, a book, and a small hard drive. Erin ignored the two datapads, instead tracing her fingers over the leather cover of the book. Physical books were a rarity these days, for they were less efficient and more cumbersome than their more commonly used file versions. However, the book that Erin Shepard was now thumbing through with a somber look was more than a simple text; it was a sentimental treasure. It was her last piece of an old friend.

Shepard placed her hand on the front cover of the book. She could not see them in the darkness, but she knew what each letter was. As her finger traced along each inset character, she mentally read out the words: _A Collection of Poems, by the Famous Lord Alfred Tennyson_.  
Upon doing so, several old memories threatened to resurface. The commander mentally shooed them off and set the worn book back down on her desk. Her attention was then given to the small hard drive.

Shepard's hand hovered over the small device hesitantly.

_Maybe I shouldn't._  
_Maybe I should._

With a sigh, Erin brought up her Omni-Tool. It's orange holographic interface glowed around her forearm. She delicately tapped a few buttons to connect her device with the hard drive. After a heartbeat of loading time, a collection of files appeared on her Omni-Tool. The collection was simply labeled "Photos," but the nostalgic look in the commander's eyes told that they were much more than that; they were memories.

Erin dropped into her chair and began examining each photo. The first was of a sleek, silver and black ship parked in the Citadel's docking bay. In front of the Normandy SR1 was a slightly hunched over Jeff Moreau in his signature baseball cap, with two thumbs up and a wide grin stretching his face. The sight made the commander give a single wistful chuckle. Then she moved onto the next picture.

This one was of Shepard herself. It was from years ago, when she was only about a eight months or so into her military career. She was sitting with her legs hanging over a med bay bed. She had several minor abrasions on her face, a black undereye, and a fat bandage over her right temple. Still, a wide smirk decorated her countenance.

_Training gone wrong, if I remember right_, Erin recollected with a lighthearted sense of self-ridicule.

The next image made Shepard's breath hitch, though she didn't realize. It was of Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. She could tell that it was taken in the CO's cabin of the Normandy SR1 for a few reasons. One, the walls of the room were tinted blue as was characteristic of the original ship; and two, Kaidan was seated at the foot of Shepard's old bed with no shirt to cover his finely sculpted abdomen. She examined that familiar wide, trapezoidal jaw of his, those warm grayish-brown eyes, and that exceptional raven black hair. He had that unintentionally coquettish smile on his face because he was always so camera shy.

When Shepard realized that she was smiling down at that picture, she mentally scolded herself. _Don't. You've moved on_, she thought. Even the voice in her head was unconvincing. Erin sighed, bogged down by recollections of her past relationships, and was about to shut off her Omni-Tool when she saw the small thumbnail for the next image in line. It was too minute for her to make out clearly, but she'd recognize that particular shade of blue skin anywhere.

Erin activated the photograph. Liara T'Soni's face glowed on her Omni-Tool interface. The asari scientist's head was tilted down slightly with her eyes cast up. Although there was a shallow layer of tears over those azure irises, there was a certain sparkle in them that suggested that some happiness was mixed in. Erin willingly allowed the memory this photo possessed to flow back to her.

She had visited Liara a week or so after Benezia had passed. Shepard came upon the scientist as she was reminiscing on old memories of her mother. The commander had made an effort to brighten the asari's mood with her usual humor and comfort, and although Liara resisted at first, Erin did not relent until she got to see that smile. Liara had smiled down at her lap bashfully, and when she looked up the commander had her Omni-Tool already primed to snap a picture. Liara had been taken aback and a little chafed by Shepard's sly move at first. But, when the commander informed her asari friend that she did it because she did not have a single photo of her, Liara forgave Shepard and offered her a quick hug before she said goodnight.

Erin had been staring at that picture for a while, going over the features of the asari's face that she had almost memorized: the elegant slope of the bridge of her nose, the purplish freckles under her big azure eyes...

A yawn crept up on her. The commander shut off her Omni-Tool and leaned back in her chair, massaging her brow tiredly. For a moment she just sat there, revisiting old memories of days she yearned to return to. When her reverie finally came to an end, she got out of her seat so that she could collapse into her bed and be won over by her weariness.


End file.
